Multi-field inflation and preheating in asymmetric $α$-attractors

Abstract: We analyze and compare the multi-field dynamics during inflation and preheating in symmetric and asymmetric models of $\alpha$-attractors, characterized by a hyperbolic field-space manifold. We show that the generalized (asymmetric) E- and (symmetric) T-models exhibit identical two-field dynamics during inflation for a wide range of initial conditions. The resulting motion can be decomposed in two approximately single-field segments connected by a sharp turn in field-space. The details of preheating can nevertheless be different. For the T-model one main mass-scale dominates the evolution of fluctuations of the spectator field, whereas for the E-model, a competing mass-scale emerges due to the steepness of the potential away from the inflationary plateau, leading to different contributions to parametric resonance for small and large wave-numbers. Our linear multi-field analysis of fluctuations indicates that for highly curved manifolds, both the E- and T-models preheat almost instantaneously. For massless fields this is always due to efficient tachyonic amplification of the spectator field, making single-field results inaccurate. Interestingly, there is a parameter window corresponding to $r={\cal O}(10^{-5})$ and massive fields, where the preheating behavior is qualitatively and quantitatively different for symmetric and asymmetric potentials. In that case, the E-model can completely preheat due to self-resonance for values of the curvature where preheating in the T-model is inefficient. This provides a first distinguishing feature between models that otherwise behave identically, both at the single-field and multi-field level. Finally, we discuss how one can describe multi-field preheating on a hyperbolic manifold by identifying the relevant mass-scales that control the growth of inflaton and spectator fluctuations, which can be applied to any $\alpha$-attractor model and beyond.